Mushrooms often lose their quality and freshness, are not suitable for eating. Among perishable champignons. When buying, it is not always possible to immediately understand that the mushrooms have deteriorated and are no longer suitable for use in culinary purposes.
Signs of champignon corruption
Signs of spoiled fresh champignons
Fresh champignons that have lost their attractive appearance are acceptable for cooking for food purposes if they:
- the color is even closer to white or with a pink tint and a matte sheen, not yellowed,
- have a velvety or smooth hat without black or yellow spots,
- kept the whole film in the area between the mushroom leg and the hat,
- have dense mushroom plates of white-pink color,
- on the cut legs darkened, but not blackened,
- they smell like their inherent mushroom smell.
Slightly fresh mushrooms are acceptable for use after heat treatment, but should not be consumed raw.
Fresh champignon is white, with a glossy surface, elastic and firm in structure. Shelf life at room temperature - up to 6 hours.
To understand that mushrooms are not the first freshness, or to determine that they have grown and lost useful properties, help:
- dark color, without a characteristic shine,
- flat hat
- broken film in the area between the mushroom leg and the hat,
- loose dark mushroom plates,
- black cut on a mushroom leg,
- putrefactive or moldy odor,
- sticky or slippery surface of the mushroom cap.
Such mushrooms are subject to immediate destruction and are not suitable for food use in any form.
Keeping fresh champignons so that they do not deteriorate and are suitable for eating, helps to wrap them in paper and store them in this form on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, without prior washing and cleaning. The refrigerator extends their freshness up to 5 days.
Signs of spoiled canned mushrooms
Suspicious mushrooms should be thrown away
Canned mushrooms have an extended shelf life, however, in case of violation of conservation technology under the influence of pathogenic bacteria, they can deteriorate in a short period of time.
That canned mushrooms have deteriorated and are not suitable for food, will tell:
- clouding of marinade or saline,
- bloating of the metal lid of the can, which provokes gases released by actively propagating microorganisms,
- air bubbles rising from the bottom inside, which signals the beginning of the fermentation process.
Any of the above symptoms is a reason to throw mushrooms. Even in the absence of external symptoms of the fermentation process and others, indicating a violation of the preservation technology and the presence of pathogenic microorganisms, canned food with an expired shelf life and in violation of storage conditions in which the temperature regime should not exceed 30 ° C are not suitable for eating.
Signs of corruption of frozen champignons
Frozen champignons also deteriorate if the conditions for their freezing or subsequent storage in the freezer were not met. The freshness of frozen mushrooms is checked as follows:
- probe the package for the absence of frozen lumps, the presence of which indicates repeated freezing, as a result of which the mushrooms become unfit for consumption;
- analyze storage conditions under which the temperature level in the refrigerator is maintained at -18 ° C;
- check the mushrooms for strength (lack of crumbling), appearance (they are not blackened, there are no spots) and smell (characteristic mushroom, without rot).
Signs of spoiled dry champignons
Dry mushrooms cannot be used for food purposes if:
- they are damp and moldy,
- have a putrefactive smell,
- turned into dust
- covered with moth larvae.
Conclusion
Fresh champignons are dense, resilient, white in color with a slight pink tinge. To find out that champignons have lost their suitability for consumption for food purposes, the changed external signs of mushrooms help. Common ones include a change in color, density and the appearance of an unpleasant putrefactive or moldy smell. Eating unfit mushrooms leads to severe poisoning.
